Golaya Pravda

Golaya Pravda was a television program hosted by Svetlana Pesotskaya on Moscow's M1 TV. After Communism, Russian television channels struggled to gain viewers because of low budgets and lack of programming. To attract viewers, the M1 Network began experimenting in November 1999 with having Pesotskaya strip while delivering the news. Soon the ratings soared and the show became the most widely viewed news program in Russia. Pesotskaya took off her clothes on camera daily with a pair of hands, strategically placed as the only thing to preserve her decency. Golaya Pravda also featured a weather presenter/ecdysiast and other reporters who bared their breasts completely. Besides the titillation value, the dissonance of watching a woman undress and hearing serious news appealed to the Russians' sense of the absurd developed living under Communism.